Professor Hugo Critchley is a preeminent figure in clinical neuroscience whose career has fundamentally advanced the integration of psychiatric practice with cutting-edge brain-body interaction research. He was appointed in 2006 as the Foundation Chair of Psychiatry at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, establishing himself as the institution's first professor in this discipline after extensive clinical training at St George's Hospital and research experience at King's College London Institute of Psychiatry and the UCL Institute of Neurology. Holding a BSc in Physiology and MB ChB in Medicine from the University of Liverpool followed by a DPhil in Psychological Studies from the University of Oxford, his academic trajectory reflects a deliberate fusion of medical expertise and neuroscience inquiry. His early career shift to the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology in 1998 marked the beginning of his pioneering work at the intersection of autonomic physiology and functional neuroimaging.
Critchley's internationally recognized research has transformed our understanding of how bodily states of arousal influence emotional processes, with his laboratory developing innovative methodologies combining functional neuroimaging and autonomic measurements to characterize the neural representation of interoceptive awareness. His highly cited work has established foundational principles for understanding emotion as interoceptive inference, notably through his influential 2013 ERC Advanced Grant research extending predictive processing models to bodily states, co-authored with Anil Seth in Behavioral and Brain Sciences. With over 245 publications and leadership of the Sackler Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science from 2010 to 2022, his contributions have reshaped theoretical frameworks across psychiatry, neuroscience and psychology regarding the embodiment of emotional feelings in the brain. This research has direct clinical relevance for understanding anxiety disorders, psychosis, and dissociative symptoms where mind-body interactions become disrupted.
Beyond his theoretical contributions, Professor Critchley has built specialist NHS clinical services for neurodivergent adults in Sussex that have operated successfully for over sixteen years, demonstrating his commitment to translating research into tangible clinical benefits. As Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Academic Faculty from 2019 to 2024, he shaped national priorities for academic psychiatry while maintaining his active research program examining the relationship between central regulation of autonomic responses and emotional memory processes. His ongoing work continues to explore the neural mechanisms underlying anxiety symptoms and negative memory biasing, bridging fundamental neuroscience with clinical applications through the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science. Professor Critchley remains a vital force in advancing the field, mentoring the next generation of researchers and clinicians while expanding our understanding of how physiological states shape human cognition and emotion.
